Estimation of angular velocity and rate-gyro noise for sensor health monitoring

Based on an exact kinematics model, this paper considers two strategies aimed at diagnosing the health of a 3-axis rate gyro. In the first strategy, noisy attitude measurements are used to estimate angular velocity; comparing these estimates to the actual rate-gyro measurements provides the means for assessing the health of the rate gyro. In the second strategy, noisy attitude and angular velocity measurements are used to estimate the noise corrupting the rate-gyro measurements; analysis of the noise estimate provides an alternative means for assessing the health of the rate gyro. Both strategies are formulated as input and state estimation problems, where extended retrospective cost input estimation provides an estimate of the unknown input and the unscented Kalman filter provides the state estimate.